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Black coffee won’t help. Nor will making someone sick. Or leaving them to sleep it off. In fact, these traditional ways of trying to sober up a friend can do far more harm than good. Particularly if the friend is actually experiencing acute alcohol poisoning – which can be difficult to spot initially.

They may have only had a few drinks, or they could have downed several, but this isn’t always an indicator. By recognising the signs of acute alcohol poisoning and knowing what to do, you could save someone’s life.

Alcohol is a poison

Agatha Christie doesn’t write about it as a murder weapon and it doesn’t feature in Cluedo. But alcohol is a poison and can sometimes have lethal consequences.

Your body can only process one unit of alcohol an hour. Drink a lot in a short space of time and the amount of alcohol in the blood can stop the body from working properly.

It can:

slow down your brain functions so you lose your sense of balance.

irritate the stomach which causes vomiting and it stops your gag reflex from working properly – you can choke on, or inhale, your own vomit into your lungs.

affect the nerves that control your breathing and heartbeat, it can stop both.

Know what not to do

Acute alcohol poisoning can be extremely dangerous. Your best intentions could make it worse. There are so many myths around about how to deal with people who’ve drunk to excess, so it’s a good idea to make sure you’re aware of what NOT to do.

NEVER:

Leave someone to sleep it off. The amount of alcohol in someone’s blood continues to rise even when they’re not drinking. That’s because alcohol in the digestive system carries on being absorbed into the bloodstream. Too much alcohol in the blood stops the body working properly.

Give them a coffee. Alcohol dehydrates the body. Coffee will make someone who is already dehydrated even more so. Severe dehydration can cause permanent brain damage.

Make them sick. Their gag reflex won’t be working properly which means they could choke on their vomit.

Walk them around. Alcohol is a depressant which slows down your brain’s functions and affects your sense of balance. Walking them around might cause accidents.

Put them under a cold shower. Alcohol lowers your body temperature, which could lead to hypothermia. A cold shower could make them colder than they already are.

Let them drink any more alcohol. The amount of alcohol in their bloodstream could become dangerously high.

There is no minimum amount

It’s true that binge drinking is often the cause of alcohol poisoning. But not always.

It depends on your age, sex, size, weight, how fast you’ve been drinking, how much you’ve eaten, your general health and other drugs you might have taken.

Don’t wait for all the symptoms to show before getting help

Better safe than sorry is the rule for alcohol poisoning. If you think someone might be experiencing it, even if you have doubts, call 999 for an ambulance.

Every weekend, hundreds of people are taken into hospital with acute alcohol poisoning. Medical staff will monitor people who have less severe alcohol poisoning closely, until it’s safe for them to go home. If it’s more serious, they could:

insert a tube into their windpipe to help them breathe.

put them on a drip to top up their body’s water, blood sugar and vitamin levels.

fit a catheter – a tube that allows them to empty their bladder straight into a bag.

pump the stomach by flushing fluids through a tube inserted into the nose or mouth.